Last year, my daughter-in-law Gina called to tell me she had been contacted by a gentleman in Forest Grove, Ore., who has an establishment called Lost Wax, a record store. He found Gina through Ancestry.com.
He told her that a record had a piece of masking tape on the label with the name Lillian Sedar, which was my mother’s maiden name. We decided to take a drive out to Forest Grove to check it out. I knew that my mom had played the accordion for many years and even played on the radio in La Grande, Ore., when she was in high school. I even have an old photo of my mom sitting on her front porch when she was about 14 years old, with that accordion on her lap.
Every Christmas Eve, Mom would pull out that accordion, and we kids would roll our eyes as she played several songs. But a record? She had never mentioned making a record to any of us. I was a little skeptical, but it was a beautiful day, so off to Forest Grove we went. The gentleman at Lost Wax handed us a record, which he had put in a sleeve. It was quite heavy. I noticed that he had made several notes on the sleeve while doing research to locate any family members.
There was my dad’s name and the date of their marriage, and also the date of my mother’s passing, which was more than 20 years ago. And there was my mother’s maiden name, in her handwriting. It was such an emotional moment, and of course it brought on some tears.
